VINELAND — Twenty-four defendants associated with Vineland, Cumberland County and New Jersey State law enforcement were named in a lawsuit filed in United States District Court, in Camden, on Dec. 18.

Aemer K. C. El contends that corruption led to him being wrongfully arrested, maliciously prosecuted and forced into pleading guilty to a city ordinance violation, according to the lawsuit.

County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae and Vineland Police Chief Timothy Codispoti are among the defendants named in the suit.

El was arrested on April 21, 2010, while in bed at a home on the 200 block of West Park Avenue and was charged with two counts each of possession of a stun gun and possession of crack cocaine, as well as one count each of obstruct administration of law, hindering own prosecution and distribution of crack cocaine.

“Plaintiff alleges that he was a victim of racial profiling policies developed in the ongoing war on drugs i.e. the ‘New Jim Crow’ which he believes the defendants’ corruption is based around,” the lawsuit reads. “Plaintiff contends that ‘Jim Crow is alive and well in Cumberland County.”

He argues that several of his Constitutional rights were infringed, including protection from search and seizure without probable cause and the right to a speedy trial.

His final appearance in court was on Nov. 8, when he said that Vineland Municipal Court Judge, John Kaspar and other court officials used the threat of jailing him on a bench warrant to get him to plead guilty to a disorderly persons’ offense that levied a $288 fine.

The other charges against him were dismissed.

He believes he was wrongfully convicted of the disorderly persons offense and alleges that law enforcement officials at every level, from police officers to the prosecutor’s office, conspired against him.

The lawsuit charges the defendants with 26 counts including the deprivation of Constitutional and Civil rights.

The Cumberland County Board of Chosen Freeholders, the New Jersey State Attorney General and the State of New Jersey were also named in the suit.